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Time: More gay teens come out
Teens are coming out of the closet earlier than ever before, according to a new study that's also featured in the Oct 10, 2005 issue of Time magazine (US edition).

Young men and women are now admitting to having their first same-sex experience in their mid-teens, according to the new study being featured in The New Gay Teenager published by Harvard University Press.

Time also reports that there are at least 3,000 clubs across the United States for gay and gay-friendly kids, with nearly one in every 10 high schools having them.

"Children who become aware of their homosexual attractions no longer need endure the baleful combination of loneliness and longing that characterized the childhoods of so many gay adults," said Time, pointing to fictional and real teens who are out on hit TV shows such as Desperate Housewives, the dating show Next on MTV and Degrassi.

The report also highlighted social conservatives who are hoping their "ex-gay" message will keep some questioning youths from embracing a gay identity. It reported that on one of its websites of the Christian group Focus on the Family, the group warned that boys as young as five may show signs of "gender confusion" and require "professional help." This is despite the fact that nearly all mental-health professionals agree that trying to reject one's homosexual impulses will usually be fruitless and depressing - and can lead to suicide.

Click here to read The Battle Over Gay Teens
Click here to view TIME Photo Essay - Speaking Out - The Lives of Gay Teens in the US

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HIV rates soar for gay German men
German health authorities are alarmed over a surge in the number of new cases of HIV particularly within the gay community.

According to figures from the government's disease center, the Robert Koch Institute, overall HIV figures soared by 20 per cent in the first six months of this year but among men who have sex with men (MSM) the increase was even higher.

Gay and bisexual men accounted for some sixty percent of the new cases. The government's disease centre is fearing the message of prevention is failing to reach a new generation of gay men as figures over the past four years showed a 100 per cent increase in the number of cases of HIV among MSM and is now in at the highest level in more than a decade.

A Reuters Health report said that based on the statistics, men who have sex with men are now at double the risk of contracting HIV than those of 12 years ago.

The Robert Koch Institute said that men between the ages of 25 and 45 who live in major cities were at the highest risk.

Institute president Reinhard Kurth said that it is clear safe sex messages are not getting through.

"Further efforts are required to explain and get across that despite improved therapy there is no cure," Kurth told a news conference where the statistics were released.

Responding to what many HIV experts are calling a "crisis," the German government has said it will look into new developments to target gay men and ensure the ever-increasing rate of HIV is halted.

"The German health minister considers this a serious development and says the rise in HIV infections is worrying," ministry spokesperson Dagmar Reitenbach told reporters. "Unfortunately, it is often the case that HIV/AIDS is no longer taken seriously as a life-threatening disease."

The number of new HIV diagnoses continues to rise across the European Union, including both western and eastern regions.

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NGO publishes first magazine for gay Arabs
Helem, a Lebanese nongovernmental and gay rights organisation, has recently begun a magazine targeted at gay Arabs, according to a report in the Lebanese Daily State.

Published quarterly, Barra (Arabic for 'Out') is said to feature articles and news stories written by homosexual writers from around the Middle East.

It is "a free space for all gays and lesbians in the region to express their feelings of social oppression and stigma," one of the magazine's writers told the newspaper.

Lebanon is said to be a relatively moderate Muslim country. Last May, the country hosted the International Day Against Homophobia in Beirut. Helem's coordinator Georges Azzi said the event attracted 200 people.

According to Azzi, the NGO is first Arab nongovernmental organisation openly fighting for gay rights and Lebanon, the only Arab country where gays can find refuge. Homosexuality is totally prohibited in Islam and is considered a sin against God. Homosexuals in many Arab countries are harassed, and even arrested and jailed if traced.